Head shaking in her sleep

[Nancyella]

Hi
My 10 week old sleeps from 8pm- 7-8am every night with a dream feed at 10.30pm (when she doesnt eat much as she is so sleepy! Probably only about 60ml).  The problem is that she stirs at about 2am and starts shaking her head from side to side.  Often she'll do a few farts and settle again when I have put her dummy back in. But then she starts doing it all again an hr or so later and will stay restless all the way thro till 7-8am when she opens her eyes and smiles and laughs at me.  Last night was awful as I was awake from 3-7am because she kept shaking her head which meant she lost the dummy and then she started crying and waking herself up almost fully, so I had to keep putting the dummy back in, which immediately sent her straight back into a deep sleep, only to have the whole process repeated 10 minutes later!!!

Why is she shaking her head? Maybe she is struggling with the restictions of the swaddle, but if I leave her unswaddled she really does wake herself up with her arms!

Please can someone help as I am sooo tired and I dont get to sleep in the day as her naps are only ever 35 mins exactly!! ( which she wakes from happy)
She is on Infacol and a reflux medicine from the doctor which seems to be helping the wind and regergitation.
Cheers, Nancy

[Aarismom]

Hi Nancy

It sounds like your lo might be a little overtired as the day goes. See if one of these suggestions works:

1. First of all, I'd move her bedtime back to 6:30 or 7 pm. The idea is to get her more rested on the early evening side/night side of sleep, since the first half of the night is mostly deep sleep, which allows them to (hopefully) sleep through the few hours of mostly REM sleep, then early morning sleep between 3 and 6. Since your lo can go 12 hours without feeding, I think an earlier bedtime might be a really good route to go to start with. The more rested they are, the less nightwakings happen on a really regular basis.

2. Getting plenty of sleep at night *might* help your 30 min nap problem. The other thing with this though is, how long are you keeping her up between naps? At 10 weeks I might suggest no more than maybe an hour. You could try to keep her up longer if she doesn't seem tired, but I think most babies around 10 weeks are still going back to bed after around an hour. I know mine did, but every baby is different. So, if she's getting up at 7, you might want to put her down around 8. If she's tired before then, get her down earlier. Experiment and see if you can figure out where her window is...you'll know it when you find it, because she'll go down so easy you'll probably be shocked. It won't be the same every time, but it'll be close for maybe a few weeks, if you're lucky.

3. If things still don't improve after about 4 days, try the wake to sleep method and see if it works. Go in her room about 15 mins before she normally wakes, and wake her up a little bit. Then let her fall back to sleep. You may need to help sooth.

4. If she's not really crying out for you, don't go to her. Let her try and re-settle, especially at night. Usually you know to go when their cry starts to escalate in tone. But if it's a fussy cry, see if she'll settle herself for awhile. Feel free to pop the paci back in if it helps, sooth her if she's all out crying, but allow her to resettle on her own if she's not all out crying for you. Go back to bed, try and get some more rest, if she needs you she'll certainly let you know.

See if these ideas work for a few nights. I hope you get through this soon! Let us know if you need anymore help!

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[Nancyella]

Thanks Sonya,   I have taken all that you have said on board and will put it straight into practice!  I've also started giving her a top  up of formula after the boob now so that I am sure she is full and therefore not hungry at night, as I thought that perhaps as she goes for so long without food at night, maybe that is why she calms down when I put the dummy in and then after 10 mins she realises that it isnt a bottle so starts head shaking in annoyance, which then leads to the crying?
As I say I'll give it all a go and we'll see what happens.  She wasn't so bad last night the shaking didnt start till 4.30am....
Cheers
Nancy